In most industrialized countries, windows touch people's lives every day. Where ever people work and live there are windows. Windows allow the occupants of a building to view the outside world, while allowing sun light to enter the interior of the building. Sunlight is a natural antidepressant and helps the human body produce vitamin D. Thus, a certain amount of sunshine is essential to mental and physical well-being.
In extreme climates, significant energy may be lost through windows during the winter when a building is being heated, and/or during the summer when a building is being cooled. With the high cost of energy, efforts have been made to provide homes and other buildings with insulation that will more efficiently prevent the transfer of heat between the inside and the outside of a building. Multiple-pane insulating glass units (“IGUs”) have been developed as an effective way to reduce the amount of heat transfer through windows.
There are basically two types of multiple-pane IGUs in widespread commercial production. These are often referred to as double glazing and triple glazing. Double glazed insulating glass units are the most common. They have a space sealed between two panes. This space provides thermal insulation. The insulating effect can be enhanced by filling the space with an insulative gas mix, e.g., a mix of air and argon or krypton. Alternatively, the space can be evacuated, so as to provide a vacuum IG unit. Compared with a single pane glazing, double glazed IGUs can reduce the heat loss through a window by nearly half. Triple-glazed IGUs (or “triple glazings”) can provide even more insulating effect, but are currently less common. They have three panes and two thermal insulation spaces.
Because of the dramatic energy savings that can be achieved with multiple-pane IGUs, building codes in many areas have been revised to require their use. The relative energy performance of these units is an important factor to consider when consumers purchase windows.
The front and rear surfaces of an IGU may be damaged (e.g., scratched) or soiled during storage, handling, transportation to a building site, and/or during the building process (e.g., during installation of the IGU, or during various finishing operations, such as painting, brick washing, etc.). It is therefore desirable to provide removable masking over one or both of the front and rear surfaces of an IGU. Once an IGU has been mounted in its final position and all finishing of the surrounding structures has been completed, the masking can be removed from the IGU to reveal the pristine underlying pane surface.
Further, many IGUs are provided with decorative features that enhance their aesthetic appeal and adapt them to fit within the architectural style of the building in which they are installed. Muntin bars, sometimes referred to as grille bars, are an example of such a feature. The bars can be arranged in a pattern to provide simulated divided glazing panes. The bars can be included within the interior space of an IGU and/or applied to one or more of its exterior surfaces.
It would be desirable to provide masking machines and methods that solve one or more problems attendant in state-of-the-art masking application technology, or that otherwise offer improvements over state-of-the-art masking machines and methods.